WBAL-TV (channel 11) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore wa ...
, United States, affiliated with
NBC. It is the
flagship property of
Hearst Television, which has owned the station since its inception, and is
sister to the company's sole radio properties,
WBAL (1090 AM) and
WIYY (97.9 FM). The three outlets share studios and offices on Television Hill in the
Woodberry section of Baltimore, near the transmission tower that WBAL-TV also shares with WIYY and several other Baltimore television and radio stations.
History
Early history
WBAL-TV began operations on March 11, 1948, from its original studios on
North Charles Street in
Downtown Baltimore. It is the second television station in Maryland, after
WMAR-TV (channel 2).
The station's parent, the
Hearst Corporation, also owned WBAL radio and two local newspapers, the afternoon daily ''Baltimore News-Post'' and ''The Baltimore American'' on Sundays–which later merged as the ''
News American'' in 1965 before shutting down in 1986.
WBAL-TV is one of two Hearst-owned broadcast properties to have been built and signed on by the company (the other being
WTAE-TV in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
), and the oldest to be continuously owned by Hearst through its various television subsidiaries through the years. At its launch, WBAL-TV was an NBC affiliate, owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with the
NBC Red Network
The NBC, National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network it was ...
.
Early programming on channel 11 included ''Musical Almanac'', ''Look and Cook'' and ''Know Baltimore'', along with news and sports productions. In the 1950s, the station introduced ''
Romper Room'', a children's program produced locally by
Bert and Nancy Claster that eventually became a nationally
franchised
Franchise may refer to:
Business and law
* Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees
* Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television ...
and
syndicated program. Another long-running show of the 1950s was the weekday ''Quiz Club'', co-hosted by local personalities Brent Gunts and Jay Grayson.
''
Baltimore Sun'' local history columnist Jacques Kelly described it at the time of Grayson's death in June 2000, as "pure 1950s live television ... executed on a low budget ... the genial hosts ... ruled the 1 p.m. airwaves".
WBAL-TV produced several local
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
shows in the 1960s and early 1970s, including ''Strikes and Spares'', ''Pinbusters'', ''
Duckpins and Dollars'', ''
Bowling for Dollars'' and ''Spare Time''. The station even went as far as building and installing several
"duckpin" bowling alleys at its studios. It also launched several children's entertainment shows during this period, such as ''Rhea and Sunshine'', ''Pete the Pirate'', ''P. W. Doodle'', ''Heads Up'', and the teen-oriented
rock and roll music
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...
and the mid 1960s teen dancing on the ''Kerby Scott Show'' which introduced its "mod" fashions and "
hippie" culture style of rock music to the area.
WBAL-TV has boasted many television firsts, including becoming the first Baltimore television station to broadcast in
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
, the first station in Maryland (and the eighth in the world) to acquire a videocassette machine (of the
U-Matic
U-matic is an analogue recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opp ...
format); the first station in Baltimore to acquire a mobile satellite news-gathering system (dubbed "NEWSTAR 11") and the first Baltimore station to hire an
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
news anchor and a Black news director.
In the late 1970s, ABC steadily rose in the ratings to become the number one network in prime time. Accordingly, the network began to seek upgrades to its slate of affiliates, which included some stations that either had poor signals or poorly performing local programming. WBAL-TV had been invited to switch to ABC in 1977, but opted to remain with NBC out of concerns about the poor ratings for ABC's then-recently revamped
evening newscasts (however, that situation would be improved in the coming years).
Switch to CBS
On March 3, 1981,
CBS announced that it would be ending its 33-year affiliation with WMAR-TV, then owned by the A. S. Abell Company (then-publishers of the ''
Baltimore Sun''), and moving its programming to WBAL-TV. Among its reasons for making the switch, CBS cited channel 11's strength in local news ratings and overall non-network programming as opposed to WMAR-TV, which heavily preempted the network in favor of syndicated programs, local
public affairs and sports coverage; CBS also cited low ratings for WMAR's newscasts. WBAL-TV's first stint as an NBC affiliate ended on August 30, 1981, when the two station exchanged networks–the first affiliation swap to occur in Baltimore. The last NBC program to air on channel 11 until 1995 was a rerun from the evening before the switch of the first episode of ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...
'', with host
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of countercul ...
.
Return to NBC
On June 16, 1994, the
E. W. Scripps Company, present owners of WMAR-TV, negotiated with ABC to affiliate with its Baltimore station as part of a
multi-station deal
A deal, or deals may refer to:
Places United States
* Deal, New Jersey, a borough
* Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* Deal Lake, New Jersey
Elsewhere
* Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia
* Deal, Kent, a town in England
* Deal, a ...
. ABC agreed to the deal as a condition of retaining its affiliations with
WXYZ-TV in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
and
WEWS-TV in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
; CBS was seeking to affiliate with both of those stations, as it was about to lose its affiliates in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
and
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
to
Fox in a
separate affiliation deal with
New World Communications
New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
. NBC originally wanted to affiliate with the longer-established WJZ; that station opted to affiliate with CBS instead. One month later, CBS and
Westinghouse Broadcasting formed a partnership which renewed the network's affiliations with Westinghouse-owned stations in
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
and caused
WJZ-TV (channel 13, Baltimore's longest-serving ABC affiliate) and
two other Westinghouse-owned NBC affiliates to switch their affiliations to CBS (Westinghouse would eventually acquire CBS in November 1995). After it lost CBS to WJZ-TV, Fox and NBC emerged as contenders for WBAL-TV. Had Fox won, then it would have become the only Hearst-owned TV station to be affiliated with Fox, plus in fact that the station would only allow up to two Baltimore Ravens games at once. NBC however won the bid for the station, citing the stronger sports programs. Largely by default, channel 11 rejoined NBC on January 2, 1995. In the interim period between the announcement and switch, any CBS shows WBAL turned down would air on WJZ-TV instead, forcing WBAL to air NBC programs preempted by WMAR-TV, because the contracts did not expire until January 1995. The final CBS program to air on channel 11 before it rejoined NBC was the
made-for-TV movie ''A Father for Charlie'' at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time; this was directly followed by an hour-long program explaining the switch, which preempted an airing of the ''
Chicago Hope'' episode "Heartbreak" (which could still be viewed in much of the market via WUSA).
Programming
Syndicated programs seen on WBAL-TV (as of September 2022) include ''
The Kelly Clarkson Show'', ''
Tamron Hall'', ''
Inside Edition'', ''
Live with Kelly and Ryan'' and ''
Access Hollywood''. WBAL-TV is one of the few NBC affiliates that does not air the
fourth hour of ''
Today'' (which can be seen in the area via NBC O&O
WRC-TV in Washington).
As a CBS affiliate, channel 11 preempted an hour of the network's daytime schedule every day, as well as half of its
Saturday morning cartoon lineup. Channel 11 also did not run CBS'
late night programming. Baltimore viewers who wanted to see the entire CBS lineup could be able to view those programs through
WDVM-TV/WUSA in Washington, which was available over-the-air in most of the adjacent Baltimore area and preempted little network programming. The station also preempted ''
Late Show with David Letterman'' in favor of continuing with ''
The Arsenio Hall Show
''The Arsenio Hall Show'' is an American syndicated late-night talk show created by and starring comedian Arsenio Hall.
There have been two different incarnations of ''The Arsenio Hall Show''. The original series premiered on January 3, 1989, ...
'' when it debuted in the fall of 1993, although
WNUV aired the series instead.
Once the station returned to NBC in 1995, the station preempted large amounts of Saturday morning programming, including several
TNBC shows, as well as an hour of the network's daytime schedule each day (just like what it did when it was a CBS affiliate) and in its early years, tape-delaying several late night shows.
Sports programming
In 1970, when the then-
Baltimore Colts moved to the newly-formed and realigned
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...
as part of the AFL–NFL merger of professional football of 1970, WBAL-TV displaced WMAR-TV (which had aired most of the team's games since 1956) as the station of record for the team (as NBC was the rightsholder for all AFC games). During its first season as such, the station provided coverage of the Colts' victory in
Super Bowl V in 1971. This partnership continued until 1981, when WMAR-TV became the team's unofficial home station again for their last three seasons in Baltimore (although the station continued to air Colts games in those three seasons, they were limited to home interconference contests). When the reorganized
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...
began play in 1996 after moving the old
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...
franchise to Maryland, WBAL-TV became the new team's station of record, but only for two seasons; in 1998, most games were moved to WJZ-TV. Presently, WBAL-TV airs any Ravens games when they play on NBC's ''
Sunday Night Football
Sunday Night Football may refer to:
* ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006
* ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN
* ...
'' and on ESPN's ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, ...
'', the latter being a benefit of Hearst's 20 percent ownership of ESPN.
The station aired any
Baltimore Orioles
The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...
baseball games as part of NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from the establishment of the new Orioles franchise in 1954 (move of the old
St. Louis Browns to the city) until 1981; it also aired all of the Orioles' postseason games through NBC's limited contract from 1995 to 2000. During its time as a CBS station, WBAL-TV also broadcast select games involving the Orioles through CBS's MLB broadcast contract from 1990 to 1993. From 1964 until his retirement in 1995, Vince Bagli was WBAL-TV's
sportscaster. His colleagues at the station called him the "Dean of Baltimore Sports".
News operation
WBAL-TV presently broadcasts 35 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, 4½ hours on Saturdays and 5½ hours on Sundays); the station also produces a weekly public affairs program on Sunday mornings called ''11 TV Hill''.
Appropriately for a station with roots in a newspaper, channel 11 has a rich news tradition. WBAL's newscasts have spent the better part of its history in either first or second place in the ratings. It led the ratings from the 1960s until WJZ-TV passed it in the early 1970s. However, for the better part of the last 40 years, WBAL-TV had waged a spirited battle for first place in the ratings with WJZ-TV. In recent years, WBAL-TV's newscasts placed first at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. However, in the November 2009
Nielsen ratings sweeps
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
period—the first since the debut of ''
The Jay Leno Show
''The Jay Leno Show'' is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/ PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late ...
''—WBAL's 11 p.m. newscast fell precipitously from first to a distant second behind WJZ (by contrast, the 11 p.m. newscast on WRC-TV in nearby Washington, D.C. was one of the least affected late-night newscasts of any NBC affiliate or
owned-and-operated station in the country; it continued to dominate its competitors). WBAL still continued to lead at 5 and 6 p.m. until the November 2011 sweeps period. Since NBC took Leno off of prime time in February 2010—in part due to complaints from WBAL and other affiliates about effects on its newscasts—viewership of channel 11's late newscast has often come close to the WJZ newscast. However, since the November 2011 sweeps period, WJZ's newscasts took the lead in nearly all time slots but WBAL is still a strong second.
In 1974, WBAL introduced the ''
Action News'' format to Baltimore. Characterized by short, usually 90 second, news "packages" and upbeat introductory news themes, Baltimore's ''Action News'' briefly replaced WJZ as the number one news station in Baltimore during the mid-1970s. The architect of the success was news director
Ron Kershaw Ron Kershaw (August 19, 1943 – July 3, 1988) was an American television news reporter.
Kershaw was the news director in several U.S. markets, including New York City, Chicago and Baltimore.
Early life
Kershaw grew up in Hendersonville, North Car ...
, who had come to Baltimore from
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
and was considered somewhat ahead of his time. He brought in talented anchors like
Sue Simmons and
Spencer Christian
Spencer Christian (born July 23, 1947) is an American television broadcaster, best known as the former weather forecaster for ABC's ''Good Morning America'' from 1986 to 1998. He currently is the weather forecaster for ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Fr ...
but also replaced long-time local news anchor Rolf Hertsgaard with controversial out-of-towner
Don Harrison
Don Harrison (August 8, 1936 – May 2, 1998) was an anchor on CNN Headline News from 1982 until his death from renal cancer in 1998. He was a member of the original team of anchors when Headline News went on the air for the first time as "CNN2" ...
and streamlined the news operation. Kershaw later brought other innovations to
WNBC-TV in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington ...
in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
as news director at those stations.
WBAL-TV lent then-meteorologist Sandra Shaw to Hearst sister station
WDSU-TV in
on September 1, 2008, to assist with the Louisiana station's coverage of
Hurricane Gustav.
On January 3, 2009, WBAL-TV became the second station in Baltimore (behind
WBFF-TV
WBFF (channel 45) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (based in nearby Hunt Valley), alongside ABC affiliate WJLA-TV ...
) to begin broadcasting its local news programming in
high definition. Only the in-studio cameras and footage from the station's helicopter were in HD at the time of the switch. For over a year, most field reports were still in
pillarboxed
4:3 standard definition. Most field reports are switched from
16:9 widescreen enhanced definition to 16:9 high definition in March 2012. On March 5, 2012, WBAL debuted a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on its WBAL Plus digital subchannel, which competes against an hour-long newscast on
WBFF.
On January 12, 2015, WBAL-TV expanded their morning newscast ''11 News Today'' to 4:30 a.m.
News Anchor
Rod Daniels
Rod Daniels is an American television news broadcaster. He was the former TV news anchor at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland who retired in 2015 after more than 30 years of service at the station.
Daniels graduated from William Paterson University ...
retired from WBAL-TV in 2015 after more than 30 years with the station.
Awards and achievements
In addition, WBAL-TV became the first Baltimore television station to win a
Peabody Award for local news coverage, specifically of their
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the Eastern Shore of Maryland / ...
pollution investigation (and the first Baltimore television station to win the award in any category in more than fifty years). WBAL's news department was also awarded as one of the top three Best Television Newscasts by the National Headliners Association, alongside
WFAA
WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KMPX (channel 29), w ...
in
Dallas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, and WBAL's
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
sister station
WCVB-TV. The station has also won regional
Edward R. Murrow Awards, the
George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...
and the
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
Gavel Award for excellence in reporting and journalism; it has also been rated the most outstanding television news operation in Baltimore (by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...
and
United Press International
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 2 ...
).
Current on-air staff
*
Gerry Sandusky
Gerard Edward Sandusky (born September 5, 1961) is an American sports broadcaster. He works as the sports director at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, and does radio play-by-play for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.
Early ...
— Sports anchor
Notable former on-air staff
*
Curt Anderson (now in the
Maryland House of Delegates
The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the legislature of the State of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House on State Circle in Annapolis, ...
)
*
Sade Baderinwa (now with
WABC-TV in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
)
*
Campbell Brown (formerly with
CNN, now with
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
)
*
Ron Canada – newscaster (1970s–early 1980s; now working as an actor)
*
Spencer Christian
Spencer Christian (born July 23, 1947) is an American television broadcaster, best known as the former weather forecaster for ABC's ''Good Morning America'' from 1986 to 1998. He currently is the weather forecaster for ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Fr ...
(now with
KGO-TV in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
)
*
Carol Costello (formerly with CNN)
*
Rod Daniels
Rod Daniels is an American television news broadcaster. He was the former TV news anchor at WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland who retired in 2015 after more than 30 years of service at the station.
Daniels graduated from William Paterson University ...
(1984–2015; now retired)
*
Mike Hambrick
Mike Hambrick (born in Tyler, Texas) is an American television anchor, reporter, and correspondent who has worked on network television stations such as WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., KTVT-TV in Dallas, KTAR-TV (now K ...
*
Vicki Mabrey
Vicki Mabrey (born April 3, 1956) is an American correspondent for ABC News '' Nightline''.
Career
Mabrey was a CBS News ''60 Minutes II'' correspondent from 1999 to 2005. Previously, she worked as a reporter for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, ...
(now with
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...
)
*
Royal Parker (1962–mid-1990s)
*
Lisa Salters
Lisa Salters is an American journalist and former college basketball player. She has been a reporter for ESPN and ESPN on ABC since 2000. Previously, she covered the O. J. Simpson murder case for ABC and worked as a reporter at WBAL-TV in Bal ...
(now with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
)
*
Sue Simmons (later with
WNBC-TV in New York City 1980–2012; was at
WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. 1978–1980 before that; now retired)
*
Ron Smith (died on December 19, 2011, at age 70, after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer)
*
Julius Westheimer
Julius Westheimer (September 6, 1916 – August 31, 2005) was a financial advisor from Baltimore, Maryland. He is best known for his radio and television work, having dispensed financial advice on WBAL Radio, WYPR, WMAR, WBAL-TV and PBS' '' ...
(deceased)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed:
WBAL-TV carries a
digital subchannel on 11.2, which launched in August 2005 as "11 Insta-Weather Plus", an affiliate of
NBC Weather Plus until the network dissolved in November 2008; after that, the subchannel carried automated local and regional weather information provided by NBC Plus until April 2009, when an alternate programming format was adopted featuring local weather information, newscasts and other special programming. On March 5, 2012, WBAL launched a 10 p.m. newscast on the subchannel (which was renamed "WBAL Plus" the previous year).
[WBAL-TV to launch 10 p.m. newscast with Kate Amara March 5](_blank)
''The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'', February 8, 2012.
On July 24, 2012, Hearst Television renewed its affiliation agreement with
MeTV through 2015, to maintain existing affiliations with eight Hearst-owned stations that were already carrying the digital multicast network. As part of the renewal, Hearst also signed agreements to add the network as digital subchannels of WBAL-TV and sister stations
KCRA-TV
KCRA-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Stockton-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KQCA (channel 58). Both stations share studios on Te ...
in
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
, WCVB-TV in Boston,
KOCO-TV in
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...
and
WXII-TV in
Greensboro. MeTV was added to subchannel 11.2 on September 10, 2012.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WBAL-TV shut down its analog signal, over
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 11, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States
transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 59, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era assignment of VHF channel 11.
Several VHF digital stations received permission for a power increase later that month after stations experienced signal problems as a result of changing their digital channel from UHF to VHF. WBAL-TV chose to test its equipment before making a commitment.
As a part of the
repacking process following the
2016-2017 FCC incentive auction, WBAL-TV relocated to VHF channel 12 on July 2, 2020, using
PSIP to display its
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
number as 11.
WJZ-TV concurrently moved to channel 11, WBAL-TV's former digital channel before the repacking.
Out-of-market coverage
Outside of the Baltimore market, WBAL-TV can be seen on Maryland's
Eastern Shore from
Dorchester County to
Worcester County, and
Sussex County,
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...
. Both Comcast and
Mediacom systems in the
Salisbury, Maryland/
Dover, Delaware market carry WBAL-TV along with that market's NBC affiliate,
WRDE-LD (Comcast's system in Sussex County, Delaware carries both WRDE-LD and WBAL-TV, as well as NBC's
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
owned-and-operated station
WCAU).
WBAL-TV is also viewed in many parts of southern
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
such as
Gettysburg in
Adams County, and
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
as well as the majority of
York County due to its proximity to Baltimore. In
Lancaster County, WBAL is only available in
Marietta,
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...
, and
Elizabethtown mainly because of competition and prevalence of Philadelphia and local television stations in the area that are more well-known such as
WGAL
WGAL (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Columbia Avenue ( PA 462) in ...
and WCAU.
In
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...
's
Shenandoah Valley, WBAL-TV can be seen in
Frederick,
Clarke
Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name.
Irish surname origin
Clarke is a popular surname i ...
and
Warren counties along with the
independent city of
Winchester.
The station also
live streams its newscasts on the internet several times a day.
See also
*
Bernard H. Paul – ''Paul's Puppets'' children program host for 10 years
References
External links
WBALTV.com(Official website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wbal-Tv
BAL-TV
NBC network affiliates
MeTV affiliates
Story Television affiliates
TheGrio affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1948
National Football League primary television stations
Woodberry, Baltimore
Hearst Television
Peabody Award winners
1948 establishments in Maryland
Preakness Stakes